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December 21, 2014
Open Thread 2014-32
Comments
the NYPD has gone off the rails over the shooting of two police officers by a deranged man who also killed his girlfriend and himself. the NYPD has declared itself a ‘wartime’ police department and is now in open insurrection against the Mayor. I wonder where this will go.
Posted by: lizard | Dec 21 2014 17:14 utc | 1
As usual, the American media and governmental elites are experiencing group-think elation over Russia’s economic problems. Far be it from their noticing downsides, lest it rain on their triumphalist parade.
But Russian companies have creditors, who will suffer. Solvency of European banks may be tested.
And Russia imports a lot from abroad. With Europe already teetering on the verge of a triple digit recession, reduced Russian imports may well tip the balance. Lots of European elites cannot be pleased with the situation or with American triumphalism. Many may be as concerned about their own futures as much as Putin is about his.
Already the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce is complaining about the impact on Germany:
http://rt.com/news/216447-ruble-threat-german-economy/
But why would the US media deign to cover such a story when it conflicts with official group think? And why would any of the group-thinkers consider the impact elsewhere?
In fact, as we have seen over and over, the US is perfectly happy to undertake policies that harm their allies. IMO Ukraine, like Kosovo, is all about putting the US putting its “protection services” between Europe and its energy resources.
Why Europeans repeatedly allow this to happen is beyond me…
Posted by: JohnH | Dec 21 2014 20:14 utc | 2
So the New York Police, by murdering unarmed suspects, have done nothing to provoke rage or violence against them, but those calling for reforms and justice are provoking violence?
Lemme get my right-wing brain wrapped around that.
Posted by: ralphieboy | Dec 21 2014 20:45 utc | 3
Belgian farmers, trade unionists protest EU-US free trade talks
BRUSSELS – Hundreds of farmers and trade unionists are protesting in Brussels against negotiations to set up a trans-Atlantic free trade zone (TTIP), which they fear will leave them out in the cold at the expense of big multinationals.
Farmers built fires and set off firecrackers close to EU headquarters early Friday, where only a few hours earlier a summit of EU government leaders had ended.
A coalition of trade unionists, environmentalists and farmers fear that a trans-Atlantic trade deal will weaken environmental protection standards and further decrease subsidies to an agricultural sector already squeezed in the wake of the crisis.
○ Berlin: 30,000 gather for demonstration International Green Week | Jan. 2014 |
○ TTIP Treaty to be Signed – Super NAFTA Undermines Democracy
○ Trade Pacts – Oligarchy in Action, US Not Really a Democracy
The US has weaponized the banking system, financials in sanctions on third countries. Obama used NATO policy in Europe to anger the Russians on Ukraine by means of the “Maidan Revolt.” This moves Europe away from further economic integration (and peace) with Russia. Obama needed this to get a positive response from the EU on the stagnation of the proposals of the free-trade agreement wkich will enslave European workers to US labor standards. It will also loosen food and energy regulation and offer Monsanto/Union Carbide/US fracking corporations an opporunity to raid the European continent.
○ France24 The Debate :: Wrecked Rouble, Putin Defiant as Currency Tumbles (Part 1)
@2
Really had a link on the last open thread, @201 …
Russian Roulette: Taxpayers Could Be on the Hook for Trillions in Oil Derivatives
The sudden dramatic collapse in the price of oil appears to be an act of geopolitical warfare against Russia. The result could be trillions of dollars in oil derivative losses; and the FDIC could be liable, following repeal of key portions of the Dodd-Frank Act last weekend.
Warren and Representative Maxine Waters came close to killing the spending bill because of this provision. But the tide turned, according to Waters, when not only Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, but President Obama himself lobbied lawmakers to vote for the bill.
Among the banks’ most important commodities bets are oil derivatives. An oil derivative typically involves an oil producer who wants to lock in the price at a future date, and a counterparty – typically a bank – willing to pay that price in exchange for the opportunity to earn additional profits if the price goes above the contract rate. The downside is that the bank has to make up the loss if the price drops.
As Snyder observes, the recent drop in the price of oil by over $50 a barrel – a drop of nearly 50% since June – was completely unanticipated and outside the predictions covered by the banks’ computer models. The drop could cost the big banks trillions of dollars in losses. And with the repeal of the Lincoln Amendment, taxpayers could be picking up the bill.
Not only Russian banks have creditors … and now the Too Big Too Fail failures’ depositors and the wildly underfunded FDIC are set up to take the fall for Obama’s ‘stupid stuff’ with the Saudis, crashing the world oil market.
Posted by: jfl | Dec 21 2014 21:31 utc | 8
@8 The Saudis say they won’t be cutting production. What they don’t say is that they have lower production costs than the other big producers (Russia, US, Canada and Norway)
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-30571382
Posted by: dh | Dec 21 2014 22:00 utc | 9
@8: “The Too Big Too Fail failures’ depositors and the wildly underfunded FDIC are set up to take the fall for Obama’s ‘stupid stuff’.”
It’s a sure recipe to assure that Obama, who has already asked to cut Social Security, will finally get his way and gut the remnants of the social safety net. Then, when the bankers have been bailed out yet again, it will up to the next guy to cut taxes on the wealthy.
Sanctions on Russia, schmanction on Russia. The real sanctions will be soon be falling on ordinary Americans…
Posted by: JohnH | Dec 21 2014 22:10 utc | 10
Meanwhile, while everyone is distracted w/ Holidays and spectacle’s of a methodical breakdown of collective society, they decide to dump this, as shallow a report as I have ever seen, however… Report: FBI’s Anthrax Investigation Was Flawed
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 21 2014 23:29 utc | 11
As to Lizard’s #1 …
NYPD Just Opened Police Department Branch In Israel
They’ve been using The Israelification of American Domestic Security FOR A LONG TIME, NOW….
Soundtrack: Muslimgauze – Sadhu
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 21 2014 23:49 utc | 12
The NYPD has expanded into a massive global anti-terror operation with military capabilities
Snip:
Last fall, Mayor Bloomberg famously bragged, ”I have my own army in the NYPD, which is the seventh biggest army in the world.” So far he’s refrained from imposing military rule on the city, at least in the white neighborhoods, but the department nevertheless boasts an impressive arsenal.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told “60 Minutes” that the NYPD could shoot down a plane last year. When asked for details at a press conference, Mayor Bloomberg basically told reporters to fuck off, saying, “The NYPD has lots of capabilities that you don’t know about and you won’t know about.”
The New York Times has reported that the department’s Harbor unit has 6 submarine drones; four cost $75,000 and the two others cost $120,000, according to the Times. They are developing a portable radar that can see under clothes in order to search for weapons. Militaristic “Hercules teams,” are deployed to random parts of the city armed with automatic weapons and body armor. Their explicitly stated role is to terrify people. In a piece by Popular Mechanics, detective Abad Nieves described the unit’s job thusly: “The response we usually get is, ‘Holy s—!’ […] That’s the reaction we want. We are in the business of scaring people–we just want to scare the right people.”
Last year, one of us asked a heavily armed Hercules team member what they were up to at the Lincoln Center. “Keeping you safe!” he barked, rolling his eyes at our unbelievable stupidity.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 21 2014 23:59 utc | 13
Just went from rural Philippines, where you are either a farmer, fisherman, jeepney driver or corner shop owner, where solar power and efficient motors might just save civilization, such as it is with no municipal services … to downtown Taipei in a single long day of travel, at the height of Xmas, here in the most densely high tech, Blade Runner infrastructure imaginable, you have to wonder at the tsunamai effect their energy demand will create once the Saudis wipe out the juniors, wipe out the big oil equities, wipe out their overleveraged credit markets, wipe out Canada, Russia, Iran oil production, the jack prices back to $140, the greatestest Trillionaire Triad Mafia the world has ever known, the greatest never sunset hot money conflagration in history …and the news is all about The Interview and Two Dead Cops.
We deserve to die for being such willful sheep.
Posted by: Chip Nihk | Dec 22 2014 0:21 utc | 14
@14 The Saudis need to be careful. They probably think keeping their billions in the City of London gives them a pass. But the big oil companies aren’t happy. They are putting a lot of people out of work in Texas, Alberta and the North Sea.
Posted by: dh | Dec 22 2014 1:22 utc | 15
Russian Spring
12/21/2014-20:13
Evening summary from Information Center of Novorossia:
To a degree honoring ceasefire agreement (not resorting to the artillery), the punitive troops continue to fire upon populated areas and combatant positions from firearms and mortars.
Russian Spring
12/21/2014-17:07
Operative summary from combatant Prokhorov:
The “ceasefire” has been going on for an hour in area of Opitnoye, Peski, and the airport.
Artillery duel Gorlovka-Mayorsk is going on as well.
Comment: Defending ruins of the airport are more than 120 so called Cyborgs.
Ukrainian soldiers have partially left hamlet Tonen`koye and town Avdeevka on north-west of Donetsk airport – having built a fortified region from these settlements and situated more than 3 thousand of personnel, the punitive troops encountered difficulty such as lack of winter-worth quarters.
Posted by: Fete | Dec 22 2014 3:34 utc | 16
Oui– thanks for all the TTIP links. The US MCM (Mainstream Corporate Media) has been amazingly silent on this topic. NPR mentioned it briefly when “covering” the omnibus budget bill passed in mid-December (the one giving the Too Big To Fail banks financial cover to gamble as much as they want, as in Banksters just wanna have fun…at others’ expense for any losses, of course.
Plus, NPR mentioned, but only once, that the omnibus bill included language allowing large private pensions to cut their pensioners’ previously guaranteed payments for all under the age of 80.
The MCM has to keep the public in the dark on so much because even sheeple would revolt if they knew what was really being done to their rights and the their economic futures.
I cannot believe there won’t be some EU nations which will kill that horrible treaty…but I never believed so many European governments would screw their own people so very terribly….
Posted by: jawbone | Dec 22 2014 5:26 utc | 17
A Cuban blog maintained by an exile from New York
http://hereishavana.com/2014/12/20/day-1-year-0-cuba-and-the-usa/
I’m hearing a lot of static in the international media/blogosphere about the ‘Americanization’ of Cuba. First off, I suggest anyone using this term study up on Simón Bolívar, with a little José Martí thrown in for good measure. Second, the idea that US companies like McDonald’s and Starbuck’s are going to roll in and over the island disregards two very important components of the Cuban political reality: 1) the state remains steadfast in its commitment to complete sovereignty and 2) they’ve been thinking about this day for over 50 years. It also ignores two important factors in Cuban daily reality: 1) there are more pressing material problems than satisfying a Big Mac/Frappuccino craving and 2) policy makers are aware of the health dangers (ie chronic disease) burgers and milkshakes pose and so should work to keep them out – protecting public health is especially important in Cuba where the government maintains a universal, free system and regards health and well being as a human right.
Hope she’s right.
Posted by: ruralito | Dec 22 2014 6:09 utc | 18
Video Shows NYC Protesters Chanting for “Dead Cops”
This isn’t going anywhere progressive.
@10
I think its the greedy speculators who have caused this mess. They know the only way to avoid cserious finance reform is to restart the money printing machines (Quantitative Easing 2.0) again. Obama was not present in the boardrooms where all this reckless financial chicanery was birthed. If he was we got some serious issues here in America…………
Posted by: really | Dec 22 2014 11:47 utc | 21
Putin’s philosopher: https://irrussianality.wordpress.com/2014/12/22/putins-philosopher/
Posted by: KMF | Dec 22 2014 14:11 utc | 22
@Oui #5
Old links – and TTIP was not signed. The EU does not want to give up its protection of internal farmers, among other things – much as the US does not want to give up its own ag subsidies.
The subsidies are many and varied – one example can be seen with the Branded program – which is literally only for ag products:
http://www.wusata.org/AM/ContentManagerNet/HTMLDisplay.aspx?ContentID=4136&Section=Claim_Help
To assist Branded Program Participants with submitting their eligible expenses for 50% reimbursement, WUSATA® has revamped the Activity Claim Guidelines.
The below guidelines are designed to provide further clarification to the Branded Program Manual, in a more user-friendly format, on eligible expenses and the required documentation.
Advertising
Approved Domestic Trade Shows
Direct Mail Promotions
Electronic Media Advertising
Foreign Website Development
Freight Charges
In-Store Demonstrations
In-Store Displays
International Trade Seminars
International Trade Shows
Pre-Approved International Trade Missions
Pre-Travel Checklist
Post-Travel Checklist
Promotional Giveaways
Required Packaging/Labeling Changes
Television & Radio Advertising
Posted by: c1ue | Dec 22 2014 15:08 utc | 23
Thought for the day from Penny: http://pennyforyourthoughts2.blogspot.com/
Posted by: ben | Dec 22 2014 16:16 utc | 25
Must-read AlterNet article by academics Walter Dean Burnham and Thomas Ferguson on the collapse of U.S. political system. Using voter participation data from the 2014 midterms, Burnham and Ferguson argue that Dems and Republicans are whistling past the graveyard if they think they can maintain business as usual. Turnout dropped so low in many states it reached depths not seen in 200 years, before their was universal male suffrage and when property ownership was a requirement to vote.
Posted by: Mike Maloney | Dec 22 2014 16:58 utc | 26
I ben, don’t know which thought you were linking too and I went and updated on you 🙂
I suspect it may be this one?
Link
Not that contemplating a potential triggering of a derivatives bailout via this crazy oil game is any less food for thought then the statement Mr, obviously eugenics oriented, Bertrand Russell’s own words are.
and btw ben, jo6pac and everyone else, enjoy your holidays however you see fit to enjoy them 🙂
And thanks for stopping by and the link too
@20. NYPD is infamous – as are the FBI – for using Agents provacateurs and then surfacing “evidence” through selective promotion of media stories.
“Several dozen” protestors, who changed the chant for a “few minutes” before changing back? I wasn’t there – but this smacks of someone “injecting” the chant as incitement, before being corrected by the larger gathering and its natural leaders – not attached agitators.
There have been protests of many millions across the US for almost 3 weeks – with tens-of-thousands in New York city on single evenings. These received almost no coverage as to size and importance. They have been conducted on an amazing scale without serious violent incident. There is consistently and frequently more damage after a major sporting event.
So when a network affiliate pumps up this little story, you can be pretty sure that is was created by the cops, and promoted through their stooges.
Don’t be an uncritical amplifier for their propaganda. Not here. That’s what Fox is for.
Posted by: Jeremiah Cornelius | Dec 22 2014 19:02 utc | 28
@21–According to one industry insider, the speculators were not just the banks. The key manipulators were the US government with the Saudis.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MID-01-221214.html
Is it any surprise that, now that oil prices are tanking, Citibank wrote legislation, dutifully inserted into Cromnibus, to foist its derivatives losses onto the American taxpayer?
Posted by: JohnH | Dec 22 2014 20:56 utc | 29
Thanks to #19 for the link to the “little story” about the protesters in NYC chanting they want dead cops. An attack on police is an attack on all decent people.
Posted by: sea salt | Dec 22 2014 21:04 utc | 30
Collapsing Oil Prices and US-Saudi Deal
○ Why Oil Prices Are About to Collapse | by Chris Cook | Jan. 2012 |
○ Iran and the geo-political agreement between the US and Saudi Arabia of 2009
○ Junk Bonds Backing Shale Boom Facing $11.6 Billion Loss
About the headline events of the year:
http://youtu.be/n_pS2oFG9lI
Any one with a deep interest in not just the JFK assassination, but also the times and personalities surrounding it – including Nazi Reinhard Gehlen who led the West German Secretr Police in the post-War period – really ought to check out this amazing recorded course from UC Santa Cruz by Dan Sheehan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObB6IUtAk_0
I linked to 14 & 15, I would also suggest 16 and 17 for those with less time. For those who want to go on an extended sprint of learning, I’d suggest all of them.
He covers all the different aspects of the assassination, but also the Cuban Missile Crisis, JFK’s metanoia, the Cuban Exiles and their CIA/Mob links.
Its a tour de force.
Posted by: guest77 | Dec 22 2014 23:16 utc | 33
Posted by: Oui | Dec 22, 2014 4:46:57 PM | 30
The 1st article was written in 2012. My post at my blog was written this past Spring. Proximity matters. You’d be surprised who reads my blog. Where’s your blog and the blogs of all your friends here? I see, Oui.
Say Goodnight To The Bad Guy
Posted by: Cold N. Holefield | Dec 22 2014 23:24 utc | 34
“You’d be surprised who reads my blog.”
I would be. Do you know his name?
Posted by: guest77 | Dec 23 2014 0:34 utc | 35
I had heard neither of this blog nor of this philosopher, but I find this blog post interesting:
Putin’s Philosopher (Ivan Ilyin)
It is reassuring to learn that Putin is influenced by a conservative philosopher a main influence oo whom was Hegel, rather than Alexander Dugin, who seems to be all over the place and writes as if Hegel did not exist.
It is difficult to reduce the writings of such a complex thinker to a few lines, but three themes stand out: gosudarstvennost’ (statehood); pravosoznanie (legal consciousness); and natsionalizm (nationalism).
Sounds pretty Hegelian to me.
I wonder if Putin and Lavrov are familiar with this aspect of Ilyin’s thought, which is utterly mainstream for a Russian:
Ilyin’s vision of Russia was as a multi-national empire. He did not believe that every small nation had a right to self-determination. Ukrainian independence was anathema to him.
Both of them have been going on about the importance of Ukrainian territorial integrity lately.
from 1 day ago Khazin on schizophrenic Government Polices.. khazin’s talk covers the ongoing issue the russian central bank plays in the present situation russia is experiencing..
Posted by: james | Dec 23 2014 3:19 utc | 37
from 1 day ago
Khazin on schizophrenic Government Polices.. discusses the present situation russia finds itself in as it relates to the russian central bank and the role it plays in this.
Posted by: james | Dec 23 2014 3:21 utc | 38
double post as i didn’t see the first one post.. oh well..
Posted by: james | Dec 23 2014 3:23 utc | 39
File Dannie Sheehan with the Hitler escaped in a flying saucer crowd.
Posted by: and or | Dec 23 2014 4:17 utc | 40
Commentary: Sporadic clashes reported in Donetsk and Debal`tsevo.
On north-west of Donetsk, in area of settlement Peski, a battle took place in the evening involving artillery, firearms, mortars and grenade launchers.
Near Debal`tsevo, in a local incident, two “Grad” units struck combatants positions. Retaliation followed.
Posted by: Fete | Dec 23 2014 4:31 utc | 41
Penny @ 26: Twas’ the Bertrand Russell snipet. Wishing you and all here a happy holiday season:)
Posted by: ben | Dec 23 2014 4:33 utc | 42
a happy holiday season
Political correctness has infected even MoA.
Last I heard, MoA is a Western Web site, and the West is Christian. So what is wrong with mentioning Christmas? Westerners are becoming like Borg with this absurdity.
Worth the read.
http://m.strategic-culture.org/news/2014/12/23/hypocrisy-empire-i.html
Posted by: STOPTHEHYPOCRISY | Dec 23 2014 6:03 utc | 45
Why is it everytime there is a pending gargantuan bailout being considered, there is some kind of sensational story that is pimped 24/7 on the msm national news oulets. For those that don’t know, I will humbly attempt to enlighten thee. The cops who were gunned down in New York City by a suicidal gunmen who also killed his girlfriend is a perfect example of distracting the masses then kick their asses. By the time it all said vand done the taxpayers around the globe will be stuck with the over speculated (leveraged) egregious oil derivatives bill. This is the same bullcrap scam pulled with the subprime mortgage “crisis”. Also expect the criminals to ask for a restart of Quantitative Easing (QE)…I guess they have completed the task of changing the ink in the printing presses. Absolutely criminal and fiscally irresponsible in my opinion.
Posted by: really | Dec 23 2014 6:18 utc | 46
@Demian #42
Last I heard, MoA had global readership, and the West alone has more than a single belief system. Season’s greetings at any rate.
Posted by: Monolycus | Dec 23 2014 6:25 utc | 47
in re 42 —
Quite petulant. PC in its own Fox News sort of way.
When I think of the West, I think Enlightenment and freedom of thought and speech. Like the freedom to say, Seasons Greetings. And Happy New Year.
Posted by: rufus magister | Dec 23 2014 6:36 utc | 48
News from Banderastan.
Latest on the divisions in the junta — Poroshenko and Kolomoyskyi: A war for what’s left of Ukraine.
Nice piece by Robert Parry on The US groupthink on Russia.
A key reason why Putin and his autocratic style have such a strong political base is that he took on some of the oligarchs and restructured the economy to improve the lives of many Russians. The neocons may think that they can oust Putin through a combination of economic pain and information warfare but there is a deep understanding among many Russians what a repeat of the Yeltsin years would mean.
Posted by: rufus magister | Dec 23 2014 6:48 utc | 49
U$ @ 12 —
It was a little too spare and repetitive for me to put into heavy rotation. But must suitable as a soundtrack, tx.
Posted by: rufus magister | Dec 23 2014 7:02 utc | 50
De Blasio’s Dilemma
During the campaign: de Blasio’s withering criticism of the Bloomberg administration’s stop-and-frisk policy!
Blasio’s dilemma isn’t unique in a time of transition
De Blasio allies often point out that he is governing at a time of transition in the city, the first new mayor elected since the population shifted to a majority of Hispanics, blacks and Asians. The police department has seen demographic changes as well, although its top union leaders — a set of hard-edged members who have long been quote machines for the city’s voracious media — have basically remained the same. The unions, whose leaders have long criticized city mayors, are currently in a contract dispute with City Hall.
…
Axelrod, who recently visited with de Blasio in City Hall, said the mayor isn’t clueless – just trying to walk a fine line. “Any mayor has to appreciate the incredible burden on police departments and the courage of men and women who put themselves into potentially dangerous situations each day to keep communities safe,” he said. “By the same token, there’s an obvious breach between the police and communities of color, not just in New York, but most urban areas, that is bad for both police and the folks they’re sworn to serve and protect.”
○ Federal judge ruled stop-and-frisk tactics of the New York Police Department violated the constitutional rights of minorities
The media play a large role how the present credibility of mayor de Blasio and the police unions are perceived by the public. I watched CNNi for some live reports and was taken aback for its one-sided reporting in favor of the hardline police unions by repeated showing of the video where most, but not all, NY policemen turned their backs on a passing mayor de Blasio. Speaking of undermining one’s authority. The murder of two cops in Brooklyn was a criminal act as is happening daily across the US and elsewhere. Throwing fuel on a burning fire is not the way to act and is quite irresponsible by persons in leadership. Shame on you police union leadership!
○ Next Issue for New York’s Mayor and Police: A Contract
@c1ue #23 – thanks for the interesting website
TTIP to be formalized by the end of 2015
According to a draft of the summit’s final statement seen by Reuters, EU leaders will say that both sides “should make all efforts to conclude negotiations on a mutually beneficial TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) by the end of 2015.”
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel also called for the deal to go through. Merkel has warned in recent days that Europe risks losing out to Asia as the United States finalises an accord with Japan and Pacific nations.
At the centre of fears are that U.S. multinationals would use a so-called Investor-to-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) [pdf] mechanism to challenge EU laws on the grounds that these were restricting free commerce.
Note: Negotiations were done under a veil of secrecy until forced out in the open by leaked documents. “Investor”and “investments to be protected in accordance with the applicable law. Keeping it nice and ambiguous.
@rufus magister #48:
You make all too clear how you are trapped in your impoverished Anglophone way of thinking. The German Enlightenment, unlike the Scottish Enlightenment, saw no conflict between reason and Christianity. Indeed, it saw the two as mutually supporting.
@rufus magister:
Also, I am justen. taking the same line as Lavrov here. So by your embracing postmodern positions, you reveal a lack of understanding of Russia, despite your background in Russian Studies.
@rufus magister:
Also, I am just taking the same line as Sergei Lavrov here. So by your embracing postmodern positions, you reveal a lack of understanding of Russia, despite your background in Russian Studies.
[duplicate post with typo fixed]
Posted by: Jeremiah Cornelius | Dec 22, 2014 2:02:26 PM | 27
There has been a great deal of angry anti-cop rhetoric, so it’s plausible those protesters were just being spontaneous, expressing a common sentiment. Your take is also plausible. It may come down to just one guy with a megaphone, a bad chant idea and people going along as we tend to do in the immediate moment.
“…6. USA
The United States is by far the world’s largest arms trader, accounting for around 30 per cent of conventio transfers in terms of value. Its position on the ATT is therefore key Countries supplied The USA supplies arms to more than 170 countries and has a mixed record of suspending arms supplies o grounds. For example, it has restricted arms transfers to Myanmar, China, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in add subject to UN arms embargoes.
However, it has supplied arms to other countries, for example Sri Lanka, B and Yemen, where there is a substantial risk that they could be used to commit of facilitate serious human violations
Irresponsible transfers
As the main arms supplier to Egypt, the US authorized the sale of small arms, millions of rounds of ammu chemical agents for riot control, despite the security forces’ violent crackdown on protesters. Yemen was a small arms, chemical agents and armoured vehicles, and Bahrain with small arms. It provides Colombia’s s with arms, military aid and training, despite their persistent violations of human rights.
Stance on the ATT
Since October 2009, when the Obama administration reversed previous opposition to an ATT, US support in getting to the current negotiation stage. The US has said it wants the treaty to raise the international sta control of armaments as close as possible to that of the US. However, the US position is weaker on human in the treaty than many of its allies. For example, US officials have not wanted to include obligations on state transfers of arms even where there is credible evidence of their potential use for serious violations of human rights, officials have also argued against including ammunition under the scope of the treaty, claiming it is too se would pose technical problems of implementation. Overall, US officials would prefer a short loose document out general principles to “take into account” rather than strong binding measures.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/big-six-arms-exporters-2012-06-11
Posted by: Not drinking da kiewlaide | Dec 23 2014 8:55 utc | 58
Posted by: kernaljessup | Dec 23, 2014 4:29:39 AM | 59
What do you want kernaljessup? That article posted by Not drinking da kiewlaide is quite the eye opener.
Posted by: really | Dec 23 2014 10:30 utc | 59
58, 59
Stumbled on this site to find you guys posting here…good find.
Posted by: NDDK | Dec 23 2014 10:59 utc | 60
“A Ukrainian air force Su-25 combat jet took off from an airbase in eastern Dnipropetrovsk carrying air-to-air missiles and returned without them on the day the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crashed in eastern Ukraine, Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper reports, citing an airbase employee. . . .
The airbase worker said he remembered the pilot saying “the wrong plane” and “the plane was in the wrong place at the wrong time” after he returned from the flight.”
http://sputniknews.com/europe/20141223/1016134406.html
Posted by: x | Dec 23 2014 11:23 utc | 61
So now Ukraine seek to be part of NATO.Too bad for Ukraine that NATO disagree.
Posted by: Anonymous | Dec 23 2014 12:04 utc | 62
UN ATT will come into force on Christmas eve, Dec. 24, 2014.
UN: ‘Virtual stampede’ of states rush to join Arms Trade Treaty
A flurry of activity by UN member states to sign and ratify the global Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) before it enters into force next week is another clear sign of the overwhelming support for this historic move to rein in the irresponsible international arms trade.
…
Five of the top 10 arms exporters – France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK – have already ratified the ATT. The USA, by far the largest arms producer and exporter, is among 68 countries that have signed but not yet ratified the treaty. Other major arms producers like China, Canada and Russia have resisted signing or ratifying the ATT. North Korea, Iran and Syria are the only three states that voted against adopting the treaty at the UN General Assembly.
risible!
US claims Assata Shakur killed one person, a cop….and so is a very wanted person, meanwhile US has given asylum to the likes of Posada Carriles, a real terrorist who bombed a plane load of most cuban people
http://sputniknews.com/politics/20141223/1016135862.html
Posted by: brian | Dec 23 2014 13:03 utc | 64
BREAKING NEWS:
○ Poroshenko
303 votes & Ukraine’s non-block status is
out. There is no alternative to Euroatlantic
integration.
○ RT: Ukraine has been turned into Russia’s potential enemy – Medvedev
Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev thinks the recent unfriendly moves by Presidents Poroshenko and Obama effectively turn Ukraine into Russia’s potential enemy. It will also “poison” relations with the US for decades to come.
Was just about to post the bit of news from #64.
In any case, the West promised the Ukraine to help maintain its territorial integrity in exchange for giving up the fifth-largest nuclear arsenal in the world, their legacy from the breakup of the USSR.
Since the West has not held up its end of the bargain, isn’t it only fair that we should replace their nukes?
Posted by: ralphieboy | Dec 23 2014 14:38 utc | 66
@19, Nothing wrong with killing police. The bad ones get away with murder; the “good” ones don’t do anything about it. In any trial the prosecution appears for the defense; the cop walks.
Posted by: ruralito | Dec 23 2014 15:04 utc | 68
Demian,
just want to maintain some sense of consistency in political dealings…
Posted by: ralphieboy | Dec 23 2014 15:24 utc | 69
Is Fairleft going to apologize now that it’s been shown that the clip showing protestors chanting to kill cops was edited by a local Baltimore FOX affiliate, to make a harmless chant about killer cops being put in jail, to a a chant to kill cops.
http://gawker.com/slimy-baltimore-fox-affiliate-caught-faking-kill-a-cop-1674040381
Then the propaganda press pumped it over their stations without due diligence, then fairleft took that propaganda bait seriously
not very progressive
Posted by: pataphys | Dec 23 2014 16:12 utc | 70
@ralphieboy #68:
For the sake of consistency, you want to have Nazis to have the Bomb, even when the USG, which put the Nazis into power, is dead set against this?
@Oui #53
TTIP has been touted to be closed at the end of next year, for several years now.
However, until the fundamental issues are resolved to the satisfaction of the EU and Japan, respectively, I just don’t see these proclamations succeeding in the near future.
The ag subsidies which the US grandfathered into the WTO – of which the Branded program is one example – are the exact equivalents which Japan and the EU do not wish to see abolished – and this is one explicit requirement in the TTIP and TTP.
The ISDS is another – there is already a case ongoing which encapsulates the way in which TTIP/TTP type courts can be used to force sovereign nations to abrogate their own laws.
Posted by: c1ue | Dec 23 2014 16:40 utc | 72
there is a tsunami taking place in Yemen, the Saudi proxies have been comprehensive beaten by the allies ofIran and Eritrea, yet not much about his in the MSM, any reason?
Posted by: papa | Dec 23 2014 17:28 utc | 73
@19 @69 See. You have to develop an instinct for this kind of thing. There’s no one, single “smoking gun” or consistent “tell” that is an indicator of universal certainty. Disinformation agents – intentional or otherwise – are always certain and usually urgent.
When you have a grasp of the actors involved – their histories, and biases, the layers of interest, influence and complicity over time – then gut-feeling develops.
I won’t say I’m “certain”, but I’d find it unsurprising if the Baltimore Fox station clip were a “trial balloon” floated in a COINTELPRO style campaign. If it is one rogue Limbaugh fan at the affiliate? The same effect is achieved with better plausible deniability.
But I understood this to be a false story, almost at once. It goes against the MILLIONS who have marched day-in and day-out, night after night. It plays exactly like previous campaigns by FBI and is completely unrepresentative of the protests. National media undercoverage of the protest numbers and geographical scope is amazing. Coupled with these exploitative, manufactured incitements, this is actually a form of information violence against the people.
THINK TWICE before becoming an echo to this kind of disinformation, and then EXPOSE it, rather than merely excite sensibility.
Posted by: Jeremiah Cornelius | Dec 23 2014 18:16 utc | 74
On Yemen, not in the MSM …
○ Effect of US drones hitting the al-Awlaki tribe in Yemen
○ Houthi Rebellion In Yemen – US and the Shia/Sunni Divide
○ US Drone Strikes Cause Fierce Blowback In Yemen
On Statfor website (know as the private CIA for large companies) its chairman, a born neocon, has written that the US started the coup in the Ukraine. One of its board members is either the husband or brother in law (I’m not sure which) of Nuland who hand picked the new Ukraine leaders and handed out cookies in the square. I wonder if all the big companies in the US that are Stator clients are getting ticked at Obama and his sanctions?
Posted by: lah | Dec 23 2014 22:39 utc | 76
@73
What does your gut-feeling tell you about Ismaaiyl Brinsley, the guy said to have shot his girlfriend in Baltimore … home of Fox WBFF … and then high-tailed it to Brooklyn where he shot 2 cops dead and then is said to have shot himself dead in the subway?
Could he have been yet another entrapped FBI ‘terrorist’ who, like the Tsarnaev brothers, apparently channeled his fervor in another direction?
Posted by: jfl | Dec 23 2014 22:56 utc | 77
@lah
Was quite well covered here @MoA and my diary …
○ SBU Intercepts Ashton’s Phonecall; Maidan Sniper Attack
More personal info on Vicky Nuland (née Nudelman)
Demian, for the sake of consistency with your ideological viewpoint, let us assume that the Ukrainian government is run by Nazis. But they had those bombs fair and square by default after the USSR collapsed. We should not break promises, even to western-supported Nazis. Our word is our solemn bond.
Posted by: ralphieboy | Dec 23 2014 22:58 utc | 79
@jfl
A two bit criminal looking for his moment of “glory.” Gun violence and murders happen daily in the US and elsewhere. The NYPD Union has a contract dispute with mayor de Blasio and different views on stop and frisk policy.
MOA has reached a new low, comments approving of killing police, siting Dan Sheehan, the Gawker and “gut feelings” as reliable sources of information, and day after day of comments trying to outdo each other with their political insight and righteous indignation. Enough crap to drive B to drink.
Posted by: Ward Bond | Dec 23 2014 23:12 utc | 81
Ralphieboy
Ukraine have no nukes, why should they suddenly get them back?
West hasnt said they woukd defend ukraine.
Posted by: Anonymous | Dec 23 2014 23:50 utc | 82
@lah #75
Actually, Stratfor is more of a Beltway Bandit than a real service. That there are some connections to 3 letter agencies doesn’t itself mean anything – because a proper government leech profiteering company would need that too.
However, if there’s anything revealed by the Stratfor leaks – it is that their so-called network appears to be more a set of intern-type spammers and content imagineers than any real intelligence.
The scary part? That this might in fact mimic some parts of the real 3 letter agency networks. The US has awesome electronic and hardware based intelligence gathering in the form of decoding, imagery gathering, and what not.
However, the exact competence in the above areas is equaled on the downside by American competence in HumInt – as the many high profile mole/traitor situations have shown.
Posted by: c1ue | Dec 24 2014 0:20 utc | 83
@c1ue #82:
Give some credit to George Friedman for calling the Kiev coup a coup. Very few members of the American establishment are willing to do that. A case in point is the liberal darling Paul Krugman, whom Robert Parry takes apart in this connection.
Happy Holidays MoA’ers
it’s been a long time, but I’d like to share a new poem
COSBY GOES TO CUBA
he looked into the pudding pop
saw royalties, saw clout
to soften up her homeland
the foreplay of his snout
can breathe, and did, and will
as we inhaled him in
when Dr. Huxtable broke out
from the blackness of his skin
in Cuba now the Spanish Fly
is pouring down her throat
the embassy is coming
and capital will gloat
now Bill can be dismantled
and piece by piece removed
his usefulness is over
an embargo past its due
a new day here is dawning
old flames eventually burn out
to soften up her homeland
drip drops of drugging doubt
so cars will come to Cuba
and the revolution is dead
and Bill Cosby’s America
lies unconscious on the bed
—William Skink
Posted by: lizard | Dec 24 2014 2:04 utc | 85
His Ward is his Bond.
What MoA needs, in his opinion, is more empty, substance-less derision by nit wits.
Assuming you can make a rational point about anything on your laundry list of vague disapprovals … do it. Unless you’re just another of those shit flinging monkeys?
Posted by: guest77 | Dec 24 2014 2:16 utc | 86
in re nr. 54
My own emphasis on “The Rights of Man” is not incompatible with the overall tenor of the Enlightenment, which marked a conscious de-escalation of religious tension following the Thirty Years War.
It is not rationalist Deism that the “Keep Christ in Christmas” crowd at Faux News is pushing.
You continentals did such a bang-up job with the early 20th. century, of course…. So maybe I’ll keep my own counsel, if you don’t mind.
Posted by: rufus magister | Dec 24 2014 2:17 utc | 87
Ralphieboy suggests nuclear proliferation to an extremely unstable state that is dangling on the edge of economic collapse, has recently suffered a violent change of government, and is in the midst of a civil war. For “our honor”.
What little credibility you ever had – and it wasn’t much – just went straight down the toilet with a handful of hryvnia.
Posted by: guest77 | Dec 24 2014 2:20 utc | 88
Dan Sheehan is a pretty accomplished lawyer and one of the more effective people standing up to the US Government in the legal world.
He started his career as the lawyer defending the NYTimes release of the Pentagon Papers. Was instrumental in bringing Iran-Contra case in front of Congress. Worked on the Karen Silkwood murder case , Three Mile Island, and the Greensboro Massacre (a case where the American Nazi Party and the KKK shot dead a number of protestors in an ambush in Greensboro North Carolina in 1979). He did several cases related to US involvement in Nicaragua.
Sheehan has a multi-decade career in public life, yet some jerk off thinks he can come and just sort of vaguely deride him as if that counts for shit. But unfortunately for “Ward Bond” it doesn’t even count for that.
Posted by: guest77 | Dec 24 2014 2:31 utc | 89
in re nr. 56
You read a little much into Seasons Greetings.
You might have missed my earlier posting of this link, from “The Jacobin,” on Foucault’s Responsibility for neo-liberal austerity, somewhere on the last open thread, most likely. I’m inclined to dislike PoMo on a number of levels. It’s been an annoying buzz since mid-80’s, when a friend of my got hooked on it.
Foucault, then, doesn’t advocate neoliberalism, but he adopts all of its critiques of the welfare state…. His objective is thus not to move towards a totally neoliberal society, but to incorporate within the socialist corpus some of the decisive elements of the neoliberal critique of the state… as a sort of precursor to Blairism.
This thesis is also illustrated by Foucault’s closeness to… the “social-libéralisme” now dominant within the French Socialist Party…. [It] is in this light that we should understand Foucault’s support for the anticommunist New Philosophers of the 1970s… aimed equally against the Union of the Left and the whole ideology it represented. (The Union of the Left was the socialist-communist electoral alliance… marking a sharp left turn for the socialists.)
I had wisecrack or two about it in my earlier post, but it’s the holidays.
A Seasonal Greeting, appropriate to your religious predilections and ethno-cultural background, to you and yours, my fellow Barflies.
And a Happy New Year, too.
Posted by: rufus magister | Dec 24 2014 2:38 utc | 90
Shit flinging monkeys – I like that, cute. But thanks to Lizard for his poem, his contributions to MOA always have value.
Posted by: Ward Bond | Dec 24 2014 2:38 utc | 91
So the suicidal wealthy morons that run the globe and the shill that pimp that death wish are crowing for war with the Russian Federation. Well mayber these fools need to be taken to the remotest desert of their choice tied to posts and I personally will accompany the flight crew that will detonate a Fat Boy II on thier sorry anihalist arses. I think this is the best way to avert total destruction of the planet. Otherwise someone stop the Earth at the nearest depot, this brother wants off the crazy train.
http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2014/12/22/us-govt-seeks-excuse-to-attack-russia.html
http://www.nucleardarkness.org/hiroshima/
Posted by: pataphys | Dec 23, 2014 11:12:24 AM | 69
Thanks pataphys. I apologize. It was an NBC clip that I linked to. Didn’t know it had a Fox back story.
Another police killing in… Ferguson!
https://twitter.com/deray/status/547634378298650624
What are american police up to these days?
Posted by: Anonymous | Dec 24 2014 8:33 utc | 95
Interesting reading. I suggest everyone to bread and familiarize yourself with this technology your very existence may depend on how much you know about the aspects and applications of nanotechnology good and bad.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanotechnology
Jordan plane shot down, pilot taken by ISIS
http://rt.com/news/217331-isis-jordan-warplane-down/
Not fun for that pilot however it wouldnt have happend if Jordan hadnt supported the war against Syria to start with.
Posted by: Anonymous | Dec 24 2014 11:27 utc | 97
ust read the article below and I whole heartedly agree with the entire piece. What makes leaders and their oligarch handlers believe they are entitled to ruleover the entire world by means of financial thievery or nation ruining bloody wars? I feel these people are totally not of this planet bor totally blood thirsty, vile and insane. Why are western powers so against a multipolar veconomy and world? Why can’t they be honest and equitable players in finance and foreign policy? What traits do they lack that prevents them from being peaceful and instead threatening to start WWIII with Russia and its allies? Oh yes if the west thinks Russia is gonna be fighting by themselves they are truly inept and dangerous and should be moved to an asylum on the moon.
The collapse of the Russian economy would be almost equal the collapse of the US and or European economy. The end result would be an entire population that would mobilize to kick some western ass and it would not be pretty. I now think the only reason the west is tossing out the possible nuclear war card is because they know in a conventional war they would lose and lose terribly. Btw, who do you think China is gonna side with? In my opinion it damn sure would not be with the west. Hell last I heard the US can’t manufacture a tank with Chinas help and think about all the other non militart goods manufactured in China that would no longer be on western store shelves.
So in closing the west better sniff some smelling salts and get a fucking grip about picking a economic or military fight with Russia and its allies because in the aftermath of such insanity the remaining western populations would be learning how to speak Russian and Chinese and that is the rosy scenario…the not so rosy scenario would global nuclear destruction.
Posted by: really | Dec 24 2014 14:25 utc | 98
Here is the link to the article I referenced in post 99.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article40550.htm
Posted by: really | Dec 24 2014 14:27 utc | 99
@Demian #85
Sure, but this very act brings into doubt whether Friedman truly is an insider, as opposed to a showman.
Posted by: c1ue | Dec 24 2014 15:33 utc | 100